ASUNA (Japan)

100 Keyboards

In this captivating performance, sound artist ASUNA takes battery-powered, analogue keyboards and uses them to create waves of overlapping notes: the Moiré effect of superimposed patterns, here used musically. The instruments are placed in the performance space in concentric circles, each with a stick pressing down on a single key to sustain its sound. As each electronic note joins the others, the effect is choral—unceasing voices in a fluid mass of beautiful noise.

How it all sounds varies depending on where you are, but everyone will feel the music slowly build to a climax. The experience of seeing minimalism grow into its opposite one single note at a time is sublime; the layers of complexity increase with every added note, and every moment is a change. In this performance, one stands before a wave of sounds that builds and builds without ever crashing.

The substance of Japanese performance artist ASUNA’s work exists in both the material and the ephemeral. —music.com.au